Becker says S.L. dodged a bullet on oil spill

SALT LAKE CITY — The long-term environmental impacts of 33,000 gallons of crude oil spilling into Red Butte Creek are a mystery, and mitigation efforts following the June incident may take years.

But city officials say the accident could have been catastrophic if it had happened somewhere else — like any one of the myriad locations where petroleum pipelines cross sources of drinking water for the Salt Lake Valley.

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker said, in some sense, the city dodged a bullet.

"Had this occurred two canyons over, in Parleys where we draw city water, this is a much bigger issue," Becker said. "It would have been a disaster of much bigger magnitude."

City crews continue to closely monitor work being performed by the pipeline's owner, Chevron, to cleanup oil-stained waterways that stretch from the spill site on University of Utah property near Red Butte Gardens, eastward to Liberty Park and ultimately the Jordan River.

Salt Lake City public utilities director Jeff Niermeyer said a pipeline breach in Parleys Canyon could taint the drinking water supply for about 200,000 residents, and an accident near the Provo River, another pipeline crossing, would impact 1 million water users.

"It's a pretty scary picture," Niermeyer said.

Part of efforts to avert that grim scenario kicks off Monday when the first meetings of a multi-pronged task force, comprised of residents and technical experts, hold the first in a series of meetings. The work groups, conceived during community meetings following the Red Butte spill, will examine accident prevention issues, as well as long-term health concerns, private property damage and environmental rehabilitation.

Very little of the oil from the June 11 spill remains in Red Butte Creek, where "hand-washing" operations have since ceased, Chevron spokesman Dan Johnson said.

"We have identified and removed most of the visible oil," Johnson said.

Last week's record-breaking rainfall did wash a couple of gallons of oil into the pond at Liberty Park, where two booms remain to catch any residual oil and prevent it from going farther downstream.

Johnson said Chevron is working with Salt Lake City officials on a plan to replace the pond's concrete border, which is old, and the company also plans to conduct sediment removal at the pond.

"We want to leave the pond in better condition than what we found it," he said.